(TQ [March, 



Hedya Servillana, Dtip., bred from woody gall of Cecidomyia salicis. — I 

 gathered the galls on sallow twigs in the early spring with the intention of trying 

 to breed the Cecids., and stuck the twigs in a flower pot containing damp sand, 

 placing over thetn a lamp chimney, the upper end of which I had closed with a 

 piece of muslin. I kept them in a small greenhouse, and the high temperature very 

 possibly brought the insects out before their usual time, for by the beginning of 

 April the Cecids. and a minute Hymenopterous parasite began to appear. One 

 morning I was surprised at finding an empty pupa case, much larger than those of 

 the Cecids., protruding from one of the galls, and upon searching the twigs for its 

 late inhabitant, found the above moth, which I pinned and labelled. 



I have no doubt that the Cecid. is the maker of the gall, which, however, is 

 made use of by other insects for various purposes, since a lot of tiny caterpillars 

 hatched out from eggs concealed in cracks in the galls which I collected. Unfortu- 

 nately I did not succeed in rearing these larvae, so cannot say to what species they 

 belonged.— Jas. E. Collin, Sussex Lodge, Newmarket: February 15ih, 1898. 



Second brood of Abraxas qro^su'arlata. — Last month a friend sent on to me a 

 letter which had just reached him from a gentleman unknown to both of us, which 

 read as follows: "During the last fortnight I have had some specimens of Abraxus 

 grossitlariata hatched from pupae gathered off currant trees at the end of November 

 I shall feel favoured if you can inform me whether it is a usual occurrence with this. 

 insect to be double-brooded. The specimens appear to be about two-thirds of the 

 usual size. — Nathan Heyvsrood, Manchester, January 6th, 1899." Upon my asking 

 to see specimens of this very unusual emergence, and also, if possible, some of the 

 pupffi or pupa-skins, Mr. Heywood forwarded at once a setting-board with two 

 specimens of the moth upon it, of which the bodies were scarcely dry ; also three 

 pupae, two of them dead, but the third having the tail-skin thrust off and the 

 abdomen soft. These pupse are more noticeably smaller than ordinary than are the 

 moths. Knowing so well the habits of the larva of this species, of hibernating, when 

 very small, in any curled dead leaf, and also that the efforts of our most skilful 

 breeders of moths to obtain a second brood of this species in the season have failed, 

 I cannot but regard this piece of evidence of the unusual character of last season's 

 weather as of great interest. I may add that A. yrossulariata does not seem to be 

 double-brooded even in the South of Europe.— Chas. G-. Barrett, 39, Linden 

 Grove, Nunhead, February 3rd, 1899. 



Prosopis dilatata and other Aculeate Hymeiioptera at Ventnor. — On the 25th 

 of July last I went, accompanied by my friend, Mr. H. Elgar, to look for Aporus 

 unicolor at Steepiiill Cove, where it was taken in 1871 by Mr. Rothney. The day 

 was very hot, but insects were scarce, and only a few Osmia spinulosa were first met 

 with. On arrival at Steephill we searched for some time without success, but at last 

 our efforts were rewarded by finding a few Aporus on Umbelliferce. We managed 

 altogether to secure eiglit specimens, four of each sex. On the same Umbelliferous 

 plants we also found Prosopis dilatata (1 $ , 2 J ) ; but, unfortunately, we did not 

 suspect what they were until we were on our return journey. The only other 

 capture worth recording was Salius obtusiventris $ . About a week later I took 

 Crabro Panzeri ? at Sandown Bay. — Q-. E. FuisBY, Chilton House, Hatchlands 

 Eoad, Redhill, February 2nd, 1899. 



